It is somewhat ironic, actually make that criminal, that two days after new SEC head Mary Jo White (whose conflict of interest list is so vast courtesy of her prior position as defending every Wall Street from their criminal acts she now has to recuse herself from virtually every enforcement action) solemnly promised Congress under oath that the "markets are not rigged", the SEC comes out swinging and slaps the wrist of the NYSE with an intolerable $4.5 million fine for allowing market rigging "for a period of time from 2008 to 2012."

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced an enforcement action against the New York Stock Exchange and two affiliated exchanges for their failure to comply with the responsibilities of self-regulatory organizations (SROs) to conduct their business operations in accordance with Commission-approved exchange rules and the federal securities laws. Also charged was the NYSE exchanges’ affiliated routing broker Archipelago Securities.

The details:

“The order highlights instances where the exchanges conducted business without a rule in place due to weak or inadequate policies and procedures,” said Antonia Chion, an associate director in the SEC’s Division of Enforcement. “In other instances, the exchanges did not operate in compliance with their effective rules. Both failures reflect a troubling lack of compliance with the requirements and obligations imposed on securities exchanges.”

The violations detailed in the SEC’s order occurred during periods of time from 2008 to 2012. The SEC’s order finds that the NYSE exchanges violated Section 19(b) and 19(g) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 through misconduct that included the following:

NYSE, NYSE Arca, and NYSE MKT (formerly NYSE Amex) used an error account maintained at Archipelago Securities to assume and trade out of securities positions without a rule in effect that permitted such trading and in a manner inconsistent with their rules for the routing broker, which limited Archipelago Securities’ activity primarily to outbound and inbound routing of orders on behalf of those exchanges.

NYSE provided co-location services to customers on disparate contractual terms without an exchange rule in effect that permitted and governed the provision of such services on a fair and equitable basis.

NYSE operated a block trading facility (New York Block Exchange) that for a period of time did not function in accordance with the rules submitted by NYSE and approved by the SEC.

NYSE distributed an automated feed of closing order imbalance information to its floor brokers at an earlier time than was specified in NYSE’s rules.

NYSE Arca failed to execute Mid-Point Passive Liquidity Orders (MPLOs) in locked markets (where the bid and ask prices are the same) contrary to its exchange rule in effect at the time.

In addition, the SEC’s order finds that NYSE Arca accepted MPLOs in sub-penny amounts for National Market System stocks trading at over $1.00 per share, in violation of Rule 612(a) of Regulation NMS.

The SEC’s order further finds that Archipelago Securities failed to establish and maintain policies reasonably designed to prevent the misuse of material, nonpublic information in connection with error account trading. Archipelago Securities also violated and failed to give the SEC timely notice of its violation of the net capital rule – a critical federal securities law provision intended to ensure that brokers and dealers remain solvent and can meet their financial obligations.

Or in other words, the SEC is claiming that for 5 years the NYSE was aiding and abetting the very same rigged market that the SEC swears does not exist.

Canceling DWTS, or whatever fuckwit show, will lead to some grumbling. Cutting EBT off is where the real mayhem lies. And by cutting it off, I'm including the possibility that the government, in all of its lying wisdom about inflation, does not raise the benefits fast enough to keep up with inflation, and EBT becomes useless as a possibility.

If the government doesn't follow its own laws, why should you and I follow its laws? The only reason I can cite is the use of force by a government SWAT team. But ethically, why should we follow its laws if it doesn't follow them?

In our current system, even if you elect new people who have good intentions, they will be corrupted, and will become bums. In essence, you'll be replacing one bum with another. Unless the bums you are referring to are on K Street. Throwing those bums out might get you somewhere, so long as you make sure that they aren't replaced.

$4.5 million. You know what the first thing that flashed into my head upon reading that? That scene from Austin Powers when Dr.Evil threatens the world unless they pay a ridiculous ransom of "One.....Million.....Dollars!". At least Dr.Evil came to his senses and upped the amount, quite unlike Mary Jo White who is being laughed at with her ridiculous "Four point five....Million....Dollars".

So we've got a minor 'bleeder' here. Cauterize and patch with some AB Weld and we'll be good to go for the next round. No major SEC or FBI movement on the Dimond mines....and where the fuck is Jon Corizine? Not in jail.

Bing; that's it; that's .Gov right there. There's no fucking global warming whatsoever, but for 300 Billion dollars a year we'll fix it for you. We're from the Government and we're here to help. Oh, good. Just a minute while I go get my counselor Dr. Garand.

Thank goodness. Their world is so bad I'd sooner it not exist at all. I've got my walking boots and survival axe, I'm long overdue some time in the countryside. Maybe go a bit native for a while. Sounds great.

Except that; you can't. Nobody around here in day-to-day land has a clue. They all think the Government is "pretty good"; probably doin the best they can; things'll probably work out, etc. etc. That's what they're counting on of course. That's why I want to start a "I'm Rootin for Putin" club; get some attention, get people to say WTF? and maybe READ something. They really, really, don't know anything.

If they're gonna fine them,why don't they send the money out to the brokerage clients? What good does it do to transfer the money to black holes r us; AKA .Gov. Is that supposed to make me feel better?

Like all these whores in politics with their "hands out" they get a momentary twinge of guilt for the lies they tell that have destroyed so many and then look the other way when they are threatened... Diane Feinstein on investigating the CIAs rendition and torture program comes to mind.

If I had to guess the usual suspects for stake burnings I'd have to say it probably would be Stanley Fischer!

Sure they belong. They belong in Africa in a little primitive cluster of mud huts where they can't fuck anything up; because it's already totally fucked up just like it's been forever. they just don't belong here.

Same Bullshit story with naked short selling.Ya,I know,it doesn't exist,then the SHO Threshold List,then investigations that mostly went knowhere because the regulators were waiting for their bank & hedge fund jobs back after serving the SECFinally after years & years a few regulations were changed,only when the financial system was brought to its' knees.No,knowbody is being front run by high frequency trading.We're all to live in this naive world.No,government would never lie to the people.

Dick Grasso, oversaw a bubble by listing companies with no revenue stream, inflated by analysts with no ethics; exaggerated by accounting firms with no scruples; overstated by corporations with no principles; overblown by experts with no morals; puffed-upped by money managers without integrity!All wrapped in the red tape of enormous bankruptcies.

Based on the above algorithm he should have been overpaid and like the bubble he and his ilk oversaw, he should be busted just like the bubble for which he was so richly rewarded for stewarding.

FU Mary Jo. You lie to us like every f-ing politician. Have faith in the system. everything is fine. keep paying your taxes. i'm not taking vacations with goldman sax money. eat your peas. everything is getting better. it's the summer of recovery. go to work and support the system. don't ask questions it's much to complex for you to understand. just trust us.

Lies, more lies and damn lies... quite a tone for the gummint the corrupt, arrogant, narcissistic, pathologically lying, illegal alien indonesian kenyan muslim sociopathic fudge packer in chief has set for everyone in the country.... that's called "leadership"?????????